Opteron is a name for AMD's line of server-class CPUs. The Opteron line is designed to complete against the Intel Xeon server-class CPUs. Opteron processors are designed to execute 32-bit and 64-bit instuctions simultaneously. This enables them to directly address more than 4GB of RAM. Opteron CPUs feature an L1 cache with 64KB of RAM for data and 64KB of RAM for instructions. The 1024KB L2 cache in an Opteron CPU operates at the full speed of the CPU. These L1 and L2 cache numbers are per core. In a Read More

Socket-603 is a 603-contact CPU socket used by some Intel Xeon processors. Socket-603 supports a 400MHz Front Side Bus. The Socket-604 supports a 533Mhz Front Side Bus (FSB). The Socket-603 is a Pin Grid Array (PGA) Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) socket. A ZIF socket features a lever on one side of the socket. When this lever is pulled up, the spring contacts inside the socket are opened. This allows the CPU to be inserted easily into the socket. The lever is then pushed down, closing the spring contacts and clamping Read More

A FLOP refers to the number of floating point operations per second that a computer processor can accomplish. The floating point method is used for current measures of computer performance vice the legacy instructions per second due to the greater precision required by the CPU to execute the more scientific instruction. A petaflop is the measure of a computer processor's speed expressed in the thousand trillion floating point operations per second or one quadrillion operations per second. As a baseline reference, the average calculator just needs to be capable of Read More

A computer processor is commonly referred to as the CPU, or central processing unit of a computer. The processor is the primary component of a computer designed to move and process data. Computer processors are commonly referred to by the speed that the CPU can process computer instructions per second measured in hertz and are one of the primary selling points of a computer. How Does the Processor Work? The computer processor acts as the primary coordinating component of the computer. The CPU will access programs, data, or other computer Read More

CPU speed is not a good indicator of CPU performance. Many factors inside and outside of the CPU significantly impact the CPU and overall system performance. The CPU “CPU” stands for Central Processing Unit, and is also known as a “processor”. The CPU speed, or processor speed, is the amount of cycles that a CPU can perform per second. This is otherwise known as a Hertz. For example, one Hertz means that one cycle can be completed in one second. A megahertz means that one million cycles can be completed Read More

A microchip, commonly called the integrated circuit, is a tiny electronic circuit. It is made up primarily of semiconductor devices. For the most part, these small microchips are used in nearly every type of electronic device known to man. As the years have gone on from their creation in the late 50s and early 60s, the microchip has become much smaller and more inexpensive to make. Because of this, it has allowed more users to gain access to greater types of electronics. The History of the Microchip In 1968, Jack Read More

A dual core processor is part of a category called multi-core processors. These computer processors have more than one independent processor on the chip or package. In the case of a dual core processor, the entire chip has two independent computer processors that can work together to increase total computer performance. For non-technical consumers, dual core processors can be thought of as having two separate computer chips combined. One of the biggest advantages of having a dual core processor is the computer’s ability to perform thread level parallelism. A thread Read More

A quad core processor is a piece of hardware made up of three components. The first is the core, which in this case, there are four of them. Then these are bundled up and fit inside a die. The die is the silver tab you might see on your processor. Finally, this is added to the package which is the green material you see with all of the pins. This is your CPU; however, it is the individual cores that, when combined, make up the quad core processor. For a Read More

CPU usage is defined as the time that a computer's main processing unit or CPU is devoted to executing a program or computer process's instructions. CPU usage is typically measured as a percentage of overall CPU processing capacity. A common problem that computer users face is figuring out how to deal with sources of problems that cause the CPU to approach or reach 100% usage. These problems differ from what normally causes a CPU to reach 100% usage (such as the System Idle Process). The System Idle Process is designed Read More

The address bus is the set of wire traces that is used to identify which address in memory the CPU is accessing. The number of wire traces in the address bus limits the maximum amount of RAM which the CPU can address. CPU Address Bus Sizes CPU Address Bus Size 8086 20 bit 8088 20 bit 80286 24 bit 80386SX 24 bit 80386DX 32 bit 80486SX 32 bit 80486DX 32 bit Pentium I 32 bit K6 32 bit Duron 32 bit Athlon 32 bit Athlon XP 32 bit Celeron 36 Read More